San Antonio Hams

2009 National Weather Service
Skywarn Recognition Day
December 5, 2009
0000-2400 UTC

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League. It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During the day SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.

 The National Weather Service Austin-San Antonio TX will be a part of this year’s Skywarn Recognition Day event. If you wish to be a part of the Austin-San Antonio effort, contact Wade Bolling who will be spearheading the schedule.  Please contact him at:  w5erx@arrl.net

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Topic: AFTER ACTION REPORT
Event: NAVY-MARINE CORPS MARS / REACT HURRICANE EXCERCISE
Conducted : AUGUST 29, 2009
Written by: Bob Hejl – W2IK – W5BOG – NNN0KSI – NNN0GBY2 NMC MARS STX ECOM 
Report Released: September 4, 2009

The joint exercise as conducted by Navy-Marine Corps MARS, REACT and Bexar Operators Group on August 29, 2009 also encompassed other groups who wished to test inter-service communications during the scenario of a hurricane hitting the Texas gulf coast just north of Corpus Christi.

These other groups included / covered:

• Guadalupe County OEM
• Hays County Sheriff’s Office
• Caldwell County EOC
• San Marcos Police Department
• Nueces County EOC
• National Weather Service – Corpus Christi
• National Weather Service – New Braunfels
• Central Texas Medical Center
• Chaparral Amateur Radio Club
• Hays/Caldwell Hams Amateur Radio Club
• Hays/Caldwell ARES Guadalupe VOAD
• Lockhart Police Department
• Driscoll Children’s Hospital – Corpus Christi
• One Army MARS Station
• Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club (provided the VHF repeater)

If we left out any additional groups who participated, please contact us with the proper details. – Bob

We were testing out the MOU’s between REACT and NMC MARS as well as intercommunication skills. The exercise began at 11 AM local time with three phases: Pre-Land Fall (testing evacuation communications) , Land Fall (testing up to date weather conditions and storm damage) and Post Land Fall (evacuees returning to their homes, damage assessment, etc) In the spirit of cohesiveness, the operation was a success.

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Here are a few photos provided by Ray KE5KHN, taken during the Hurricane Drill while out at the Seguin Westbound IH-10 Rest Stop at the 619 mile marker.

Ray says…

I was the rookie of the bunch and what I learned most, was that I have a lot more to learn regarding antennas, HF, and emergency communications procedures.  I really enjoyed the experience and the camaraderie of the fellow HAM operators working together for the same cause.
 
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On Saturday, August 29th, there were a few of us who got up when the chickens did, to get our radios and portable antennas ready for a South Texas Hurricane Drill.    Some operators chose locations that were pre-set up and air conditioned, others like me chose to “rough it” in the great outdoors without any AC.   Fortunately for us, the weather cooperated and it didn’t storm on us, nor did it get as hot as recent days.   My van’s thermometer (sitting out there in the sun on black asphalt) got up to 102, but it wasn’t that hot inside our very shaded shelter area.  We should have brought a box fan with us, but we didn’t think about that until we were already there and set up.

Hill Country REACT Team was tasked with staffing the state rest area located on west bound IH-10 at the 619 mile marker.  To convert that description into plain English, this was the last major rest stop on IH-10 for folks coming west from Houston or the coast, prior to Seguin or even San Antonio, TX.  This rest stop has been used in previous (actual) evacuations to monitor traffic flow on the interstate, so that emergency officials (primarly in San Antonio) could be given advance notice of mass arrivals.    We only truly needed to run 2 meters VHF capability here, but we experimented with a couple of HF antennas as well.

Today, three members (Lee N5NTG, Gary K5GST, Ray KE5KHN) of our REACT Team set up as part of a much larger drill, a drill that saw at least 2 ARES groups, our REACT Team, the Bexar Operators Group, South TX Navy-Marine Corps MARS, an Army MARS station, 2 National Weather Service Offices, multiple county EOC’s both near SA and down by the coast, etc.

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In a recent posting by W2IK, the upcoming drill on Saturday, August 29th, was discussed in rather general terms.   Since that time, we’ve increased the scope of this event somewhat.    We’ve added one ARES group (Hayes / Caldwell County) to the mix, and have room for more if other groups want to  participate.

The event will only last 3 hours of radio time (11am – 2pm Saturday), compressing several days into 3 hours.  What fun!   We’ll be using local VHF freqs for operations near SA and another freq for local CC comm, plus a 40 meters net for the group, and MARS’s HF freq for their internal operations.  We’ll be using the NWS office in New Braunfels KD5UMW and Drisocoll Childrens Hospital W5DCH as net controls.

Event:  Hurricane “Albert” is expected to make landfall just north of Corpus with maximum winds at 130 mph.

• Hour 1 – Pre-Landfall – evacuation of residents in coastal cities in path of storm. Problems with evac routes and major side routes.  Status of Shelter fill rates, etc.
• Hour 2 – Landfall – Loss of power, high winds, property damage noticed, major flooding and high surf conditions.  Problems with evac routes and major side routes.  Status of Shelter fill rates, etc.
• Hour 3 – Post-Landfall – Sending in teams to evaluate damage, return residents, status of evac routes being returned to normal use, power failures in area, comm failures in area due to towers blown or power failures, etc.  Wrap up.

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Looks like all current hurricane path predictions have Hurricane Bill veering north up along the Alantic eastern seaboard of the USA, instead of west into the Gulf of Mexico.  Guess Bill learned that the ham operators in Texas were prepared to respond to his visit, and decided to go look for better hunting elsewhere…  🙂

Actually, based on the track shown on www.stormpulse.com it would seem that Bill doesn’t even want to visit the eastern portion of the USA, except perhaps for a quick brush past the state of Maine?

Hurricane Bill Advisory 22 08-20 at 4pm ET

One of my favorite tracking sites is www.stormpulse.com which lets you choose which storm to track, and can see how far away it is in miles from some city (like San Antonio or Corpus Christi, etc.).

Currently as of 08/17,  this tracking authority apparently does not envision a high chance of Hurricane Bill coming to Texas, but instead predicts that it will be heading toward the eastern US coast.  Bill turned into a Hurricane status as of the morning of 08/17.

Of course, the true official hurricane forecast site is always the National Hurricane Center from the National Weather Service.

Later this month on August 29th, the combined talents of Navy-Marine Corps MARS, REACT, National Weather Service, Bexar Operators Group and others will work together during a hurricane drill. Information will be passed using both MARS EEI and standard text messaging when a “hurricane” landfalls on an area just north of Corpus Christi. We will also have coastal hospitals and Skywarn personnel working the event.  The drill is scheduled for the morning of Saturday, August 29th.

This will be a test of various MOUs and our ability to communicate with each other in case a real weather event should erupt.

This is NOT just some “table top” drill, as stations will actually deploy along the coast and along evacuation routes from both Houston and Corpus Christi. In addition, there will also be stations up and running at two National Weather Service offices (New Braunfels & Corpus Christi).  And now it looks like “someone invited” Tropical Storm Bill to come help make our drill be a bit more realistic. 🙂

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The Bexar Operators Group (W5BOG) is in the final stages of acquiring a 1994 Chevy Van/Bus for their use as a general communications and/or emergency communications vehicle. This 18 passenger bus will be converted into a go-anywhere communications van which will also be used for casual outings and “in the field” communications experiments. This “green” bus runs on propane. It will be fitted with complete VHF and HF  operating areas, propane stove, sleeping accommodations and “bathroom”. Special antennas will be used and a portable generator and solar panels will supply energy.    It is hoped to have the vehicle “up and ready” in a few weeks.

Information about the Bexar Operators Group, including what they have done and their planned events, can now be found at their new site: Bexar Operators Group – Home  

This club is an active amateur radio group and not a social club. Up coming events include participation in this year’s JOTA event which will focus on operating “green” with solar panels and wind turbines.

We also sponsor the annual “Jump Team Boot Camp”. All types of antenna testing and field operations are done in order to make members better operators in both contests and during emergency conditions.

This webpage also includes two links which will get you to W2IK’s old AOL webpages (45 of them) that were thought lost. Between the two you should find them all!

For further info, contact us through our new web page or at: W2IK@arrl.net